


Dugout

by Lomedet



Category: Dead Zone
Genre: M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-15
Updated: 2009-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-02 19:50:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lomedet/pseuds/Lomedet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They had always discovered everything together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dugout

**Author's Note:**

> This is the backstory to another plotbunny that bit me while watching "No Questions Asked". It sorta-kinda contains spoilers for that episode, and might not make much sense if you haven't seen it. (although, if you haven't seen the episode, and read the story anyway, I'd love to hear what you think of it). This story was beta-read by the lovely and incomparable Sage, without whom I don't know what I'd do. Any remaining errors are, of course, completely my own.

It had always been the three of them: Jeremy, Frankie, and Walt. They discovered everything together, ever since the day Jeremy had picked first Walt and then Frankie to be on his lunchtime kickball team back in first grade. So, it wasn't surprising that they should discover this together, too.

They were in the dugout after baseball. Everyone else had gone home and the three of them were messing around like they did after every practice. They'd changed out of their dirt- and grass-stained uniforms to make a 7-Eleven run, but none of them had had a chance to shower. Walt smirked to himself at the tuft of grass somehow still caught in Frankie's hair, and idly wondered how Jeremy's hair could still stick up that high even after being smushed under a batter's helmet. Frankie was trying to balance a baseball bat on his forehead, Jeremy was alternately helping him and trying to push him off balance, and Walt was bouncing a baseball off of the wall, deliberately not thinking about his algebra homework. It was a sunny spring day, and their team was on a winning streak, and none of them could imagine that there was anything better in the world.

Later on, Walt was inclined to blame Jeremy. Jeremy, who'd been 'going steady' with Alison since the beginning of the school year and presumably knew how all this worked. But it was Frankie, like always, who had the guts to just ask, "So, what's it like, you know, kissing a girl?"

"You really want to know?"

Walt saw something in the twist of Jeremy's grin, and he opened his mouth to warn Frankie but before he could get a word out Jeremy leaned over and planted a loud, smacking kiss right on Frankie's mouth.

"Ewwwww - gross, man!" Frankie shoved Jeremy away from him, and while any other time this would have been a cue for Jeremy to shove back and start a wrestling match that would eventually involve Walt as either referee or tag-team member, this time Jeremy let it go.

Frankie looked at him, and Walt could see him actually decide that this was just another one of Jeremy's attempts to set him off, and that this time he wasn't going to let it get to him. Instead he just shrugged into his jacket, mumbling an abrupt, "Later, dude," as he stood up and started for home.

Jeremy flipped a casual bird at Frankie's back, and Walt bit back a laugh. But then Jeremy turned to Walt with a mischievous gleam in hs eye, raised his eyebrow in a dare and said, "So, Bannerman, are you curious, too?"

Walt knew he should get up, should shove Jeremy away like the cocky asshole he was. He should laugh in Jeremy's face and walk home like Frankie did, but he was stuck in place, not able to move a muscle as Jeremy leaned closer and closer.

This kiss was different from the one Jeremy'd given Frankie. It was softer and slower, and when Walt felt Jeremy's mouth open he opened his own without even thinking about it. The feeling of someone else's tongue touching his should have been gross, but instead was hot -hotter even than the poster of Cheryl Tiegs in a wet bikini he had pinned on the back of his bedroom door. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the taste of Jeremy's mouth -under the flavor of the post-practice Slurpee was something else, something uniquely Jeremy, and he was holding on to Jeremy tighter even than a wrestling hold, and Jeremy was holding on to him, too. They kissed until they ran out of breath, and then they both let go at the same time. They pulled back, and Walt looked down at his Vans -one of was beginning to get a hole in the toe- and said, "Um, I gotta go. I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

Jeremy was already putting on his jacket. "Yeah, man, see you in class."

The next day they didn't talk about it, and by the day after that everything was back to normal, as if the kiss had never even happened. Walt was the best man at Jeremy's wedding, and Jeremy got Walt the job with the force when he got back from Desert Storm. Most days Walt had completely forgotten that strange moment in the dugout.

Only, years later, lying in bed with Jeremy's wife, Walt sometimes found himself searching for that half-remembered taste of his best friend's kiss.


End file.
